Sunday June 14th / Create Your Own Rainbow Crayons
Toddler and Preschooler
This is an activity that your child can't really do alone side of you but can play with after you make it. Hot wax and small children really do not mix!
You need:
broken and old crayons
round tin can or muffin tin
candy molds?
oven
1. Remove all paper from crayons
2. Sort by color or mix 'n' match colors
3. Put muffin tin in oven (about 6 minutes, check often)
4. Place in freezer
5. Flip over and rub hot water over muffin tin, crayons will fall out.
6. Make pictures!
You will either have a very large crayon with one color or a "rainbow" color crayons.
Now make beautiful art work and hang it up!
Monday June 15th / Young (Mad?) Scientist / Shadows
Toddler and Preschooler:
Ok, Did you know shadows actually fall under science? I was surprised to find shadow play in numerous science books this week.
You need:
a dark room
cardboard
sticks
tape
scissors
flashlight
two or more people
First cut out your shadow puppets. They can be any shape, size, etc. You can make vampires, stars, monsters, ghosts, trees, bears, (it is limitless). Make your own patterns or use one you find online. YOu should use cardboard because it won't flop over.
Attach cardboard to your stick.
Have one person hold the flashlight.
Move your puppets in front of the light.
Science is all about exploring and finding out how things work! Ask your child lots of questions to get them to think about your activity.
How do you move to make it bigger and smaller? Why can you see it on the wall? What is a shadow?
Light rays are straight, so the closer the closer the puppet is to the light, the larger it is on the wall.
Can you make your shadow puppet move? Can you make your shadow puppet dance?
How would it move if it was happy? sad? excited?
Want to get real fancy? Set up the flashlight and have you and your child hold up puppets and have them talk and/ or act out a story. You could cut out characters from a book, read the book, and then have the shadow puppets act the story out!
Tuesday June 16th / Let's Get Movin'
Toddler and Preschooler
How many exercise videos do you own? Do you happen to own any "How to.." dance videos? Country western line dancing maybe? Well, take them off the shelf and dust them off, we're ready to move it!
You need:
videos
Open space!
We watched a few different types of videos this week. I started with the yoga one for fun with them. This wasn't wildly successful with mine, but I would certainly try it before deciding with yours. Then we hit the library and got a selection of country western line dances. This was a hit!! They had such a good time and I got a great work out too! Lastly they watched break dancing videos. They actually screamed in excitement when the kids spun on their heads! My toddler has been asking to "spin head" "spin head"! (No, she can't actually do that, but we pretend)
Wednesday June 17th / Nature Walk / Stick it!
Toddler and Preschooler
The weather has been so beautiful here! It is time to get outside and enjoy it. Before you go on your next nature hike grab a piece of contact paper.
You need:
One sheet of contact paper
Things you collect on your walk
You have two options. You can collect things and stick them as you go on your walk. Or you can collect different objects and stick them when you get home. I was worried I would drop the contact paper and once if is filled with dirt it won't stick anything else. Things that will stay are small and light objects like flowers, leaves, etc. You may have to discuss and show your child that larger things will fall off, like big rocks.
You can also put these on a piece of construction paper and put the contact paper over it.
Now display it! You can talk about your walk for many days to come and all the things you found.
Thursday June 18th / Coffee Dough Masters
Do you love the small of coffee? Do your kids love to play with play dough? This activity combines these two things!
Toddler and preschooler
You need:
1/4 c instant coffee
3/4 c warm water
2 c flour
1/2 c salt
1. Mix water and coffee in a small bowl
2. Combine Flour and salt in a big bowl
3. Add the water and coffee into the flour and water
4. Instant Dough!
5. PLAY
6. Bake finished products sculptures at 300 degrees for 30-45 minutes
7. If you would like to preserve your sculptures, apple shellac
Care Giver Info / Adjectives, Adverbs, & Suffixes
When children perform a "slow" walk or skips "lightly" adjectives and adverbs become more than an abstract concept. When they are given the opportunity to demonstrate physically action words such as; stomp, pounce, stalk, slither or descriptive words such as; smooth, gentle, enormous, word comprehension is immediate and long-lasting. Even suffixes take on a greater relevance when children act out the difference between scared and scary.
-Jump into Literacy: Active Learning for Preschool Children
Rea Pica
Friday June 19th / Odinary Item / Paper
Toddler and Preschooler
Ok, Have you seen the famous YOUTUBE video of baby Ethan ripping paper and falling over laughing? Well, after we played with paper this week I let the kids watch this video. They have asked to see laughing baby Ethan everyday this week.We have 10 ideas for playing with paper...
Challenge:
How many sounds can you make with a piece of paper?
Remember to listen to the sound with each new action.
*roll it up and use it as a megaphone
*rip and tear it
*crumple it
*flick it
*blow under or over it, to get it to flap
*smash it under your feet
*rub it on your head
*fold it
*throw it at something :-)
*smooth it out again
Keep going! How long can you and your child be entertained by a single (or a few) pieces of paper?
Extension: Paper airplanes? Fancy Origami?
Saturday June 20th / Baby Doll Bath Day
Toddler and Preschooler
This started because I was cleaning out the baby bathtub for a friend who's pregnant and ended a few hours later with a great new activity! Both kids loved it. I loved my son telling the baby doll "Ok, we are going to wash your hair now, ready? 1 (pour water over her head) 2 (repeat) 3 (repeat). Ok baby, we're all done, that wasn't so bad was it?" I laughed really hard, Has he ever heard THAT before??
You need:
Baby bathtub or a plastic bin
PLASTIC baby doll
water
wash cloths
baby soap
cup for hair washing
Take the tub outside, fill it with water. Tell the kids they have to give the baby a bath! Give them wash cloths, soap, and anything else you use in the tub. You can show them what to do or sit back and watch to see their perception of bathtime! Your choice on the type of doll, I chose our plastic one that could get wet.
My toddler kept telling the doll, "ALL CLEAN!"
BONUS Activity!!
Rotating Toys
Go Have you ever tried to sell your childs old toys? As soon as you take out the toys they haven't seen in a long time, they become interested again. This actually works with toys they see everyday too. Just move them to the middle of the room and talk about them for a few minutes and interest is renewed.
Well, put this to work for yourself. Put a portion of your childs toys away in a closet or in plastic bins and store them out of sight for awhile. Rotate new toys in every few weeks and take some out.
Remember to READ 15 minutes a day
to your child!
"Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."
-Mark Twain
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